Kelsey McCarter and her husband Justin McCarter in Knox County Criminal Court for her arraignment Thursday, May 5, 2016. (MICHAEL PATRICK/NEWS SENTINEL)

KNOXVILLE (News Sentinel) -

The statutory rape case against the wife of a former South-Doyle High School assistant football coach began with rumors that a player was blackmailing her with "compromising photographs" and that the school would be "lit up," records show.

Principal Tim Berry and Assistant Principal Clark Duncan will resume their roles at South-Doyle on May 23 after three months on leave during that probe, according to written reprimands provided by Knox County Schools spokeswoman Melissa Tindell on Tuesday. Their return was announced less than a week after Kelsey McCarter, the wife of former assistant coach Justin McCarter, appeared in court on six counts of statutory rape by an authority figure and one count of exploitation of a minor by electronic means.

Prosecutors say Kelsey McCarter, 26, had sex with a sophomore player, then 14, over the space of about a year while he lived with the couple attending South-Doyle.

Berry and Duncan, who's also the school's athletic director and football coach, were placed on administrative leave with pay in February pending an investigation of whether they failed to immediately report allegations of child sexual abuse to the state Department of Children's services or law enforcement.